


Like Fruit From a Tree

by Snickfic



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Feelings, Gen, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 03:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/pseuds/Snickfic
Summary: The potion came in a little vial. It was clear, with a faint yellow hue, and though Thor knocked it back in one swallow, the aftertaste was unimaginably bitter. He was given a chair in which to wait for the potion to take effect. Loki hovered nearby. “I won’t have you spilling any of our state secrets to passersby,” he said severely, as though there seemed any danger of that happening.





	Like Fruit From a Tree

It was pure chance that Thor went along. The previous day’s council meeting had been particularly galling, and Thor wanted more than anything to get off the ship, with its slightly sour recycled air, and stretch his legs. So he was there in a private meeting room in Harialdo’s sole spaceport while Loki bargained with the Hari for fuel and food and supplies. 

The Hari, it seemed, had heard of Loki. “We’ll not trade with one such as you without assurances.”

“I’ll readily give you mine,” Loki said.

One of the Hari flapped its long, whiskered ear. “Yours are of no value, Liesmith.”

“My brother’s, then,” Loki said, turning to Thor. “The mighty Thor, King of Asgard—surely you’ve heard of him.”

The lead Hari regarded Thor. Thor contrived to put as much sincerity and honesty into his smile as could be wished for. The Hari seemed unimpressed; as Thor turned toward Loki, he caught the roll of Loki’s eyes. “We have the credits,” Loki pointed out, turning back to the Hari. “What is it you want assurance _of_?”

“Credits can be forged.” 

“You agreed to treat with us,” Loki said, with that deliberate carefulness that meant he was trying not to lose his patience. Thor felt a burst of fondness at Loki making the effort, which he didn’t always. See: the previous day’s council meeting. “Was that strictly for your own entertainment, or have you some solution?”

The solution was a potion that acted as shackles on the tongue; the one who ingested it could tell no lies. Could, in fact, be induced to spill all manner of truths, although the extent of that effect depended on the individual. “Liesmith, will you take it and give us your guarantee that your currency is good and that you treat with the Hari in good faith? I will of course do likewise, and guarantee the quality of the fuel and supplies you requested.”

Thor had been paying only partial attention to the exchange by this point; he’d gotten lost thinking what a useful thing such a potion would be. But some minute motion of Loki’s caught Thor’s eye, and then he realized how very still Loki had gone. Rigid, even. Loki gave Thor a glance, utterly expressionless, and then looked back. “And you’ll not trade with us otherwise,” he said.

“We will not.”

The Hari were the only civilization on this planet advanced enough to deal in galactic currency, and Norns knew the refugees aboard the Statesman had nothing else to offer.

“What is the procedure?” Loki asked.

“We each take a dose, give it a quarter-hour to work, and make our guarantees. We’ve a room you may use while the potion wears off, if you like. It takes about an hour usually.”

“I see,” Loki said, still holding himself with that unnatural stillness.

“I’ll do it,” Thor said.

Up to now he’d left all the talking to Loki, and no one had paid much attention to him. Now all heads turned, including Loki’s. He looked at Thor, expressionless, and then he turned back to the lead Hari. “Is that acceptable?”

“Normally, we wouldn’t ask it of a head of state,” the Hari said thoughtfully. Then it shrugged. “We accept.”

The potion came in a little vial. It was clear, with a faint yellow hue, and though Thor knocked it back in one swallow, the aftertaste was unimaginably bitter. He was given a chair in which to wait for the potion to take effect. Loki hovered nearby. “I won’t have you spilling any of our state secrets to passersby,” he said severely, as though there seemed any danger of that happening. Nobody came near them. Thor wasn’t even sure what state secrets he had to spill; everyone knew the straits the remaining Asgardians were in.

The fifteen minutes passed. A Hari fetched Thor. Loki followed on Thor’s heels to where the lead Hari waited. Another asked them each for their guarantee of the transaction. It took less than a minute. When it was done the lead Hari broke into a grin—or at least, it was like a grin. It showed a great many of the Hari’s crooked teeth, anyway. “Saphes here will handle the credit transfer,” the Hari said. “Feel free to make use of our recovery room.” Then, louder, to the group of other Hari assembled near the door. “Load ‘em up!”

“I think we’ll forego these kind people’s hospitality, don’t you, brother?”

“I don’t feel any different,” Thor said. “I don’t think it worked.”

“Tell me, Thor,” Loki said impatiently, “did you enjoy the company of that A’askivarian warrior we encountered on Vanaheim when Father sent us there for training?”

“Oh, yes, she was very attractive. And her tentacles—mmph,” he said, with Loki’s hand over his mouth. It occurred to him suddenly that he would rather not tell Loki about the A’askavarian’s tentacles.

Loki cautiously removed his hand. “There, you see? It worked. Now let’s get back to the ship.”

Thor had expected to sequester himself in his room until the effects of the potion had passed. He had plenty enough work to do. But somehow when the door slid shut, Loki stood inside the room with him. “Did you want something?” Thor asked warily.

“Merely your company, brother,” Loki said, with that smile even an infant would mistrust. He gestured towards Thor’s desk, with its several tablets, screens all gone dark. There wasn’t a scrap of parchment on the ship the Asgardians hadn’t brought themselves.

Thor hadn’t the head for figures just now, he realized. He felt unexpectedly warm, his thoughts a touch slow—the pleasant buzz of a few tankards of mead. “And you shall have it,” he said expansively, dropping into the room’s only chair. “What would you speak of?”

Loki took a seat on Thor’s bunk and regarded him silently, elbows resting on his knees, brows peaked in thought. 

A thought came to Thor, like a bubble bursting at the surface of a pond: the throne had suited Loki. Whether Loki had suited the throne was another question entirely, and Thor had been far too busy recently burning his realm to ash and fleeing through space to determine the answer to it. But even before the events of Sakaar and Loki’s triumphant return, he’d seemed less apt to strike at a whim, to slice a man’s heart out with his own blade out of pique. There was a settled quality to him that Thor hadn’t seen in longer than he could remember. Perhaps he’d never seen it.

Now Loki laughed shortly, shaking his head. “It was a golden opportunity, the like of which you’ll probably never have again. Loki Liesmith, all yours to pluck truths out of like fruit from a tree.”

“You were going to agree to it, then,” Thor said, though he’d had little doubt.

Loki pressed the answer between his lips before releasing it. “Yes. See what you’ve missed out on? The answers to all your burning questions. Or as many as could fit into an hour, anyway. Tell me, brother, why did you do it?”

It was freeing, in a way. Whatever came out of Thor’s mouth wasn’t his fault, though he had no doubt Loki would blame him for it anyway, if he were inclined. And whatever Thor said would be true; it saved him picking all through his mind, testing each thought. “I didn’t really think it through,” he said.

Loki heaved an aggrieved sigh. “You are truly a waste of a good truth potion. ‘I didn’t think it through.’ As though I needed a potion to tell me _that_.”

“That, too,” Thor said. “I couldn’t imagine it’d do me any harm. I’ve no secrets.”

“Unlike me,” Loki said, smile spread too wide.

“Exactly,” Thor agreed cheerfully. A person couldn’t start paying attention to Loki’s quicksilver moods or they’d go mad inside half an hour. “Anyway, you clearly didn’t want to do it.”

Loki narrowed his eyes, and then he leaned back and laughed. “How extraordinarily sentimental of you. Did you even consider how much easier the next council meeting would go for you if you could guarantee I’m not planning to betray you all at next opportunity?”

“Are you?”

Loki paused. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Mm,” Thor said neutrally. 

Loki gave him a sharp look. It turned thoughtful after a moment. “What would you have asked me?”

Thor blinked at him. “What does it matter?”

“It doesn’t,” Loki said readily. He said no more, only watched Thor, bright-eyed and expectant. 

Where to begin? So many questions had simmered in him, and for so long. Mostly Thor succeeded in not thinking of them these days; it was easier now, as the past receded and Loki remained on the ship, in the flesh. He didn’t even comment when Thor found reason to touch him more often than perhaps he once had, assuring himself that Loki was still there.

Thor took a breath. “Did you mean to take the throne when you let those Jotun into the armory, or just to disrupt my coronation and goad me to defy Father? How long had you hated me? Was it a constant thing, or only intermittent? What did you hope to accomplish on Midgard? Did you mean Father to die when you left him on Earth? How long do you intend to stay?” Thor hadn’t meant to speak the last aloud, but then he didn’t have that choice at present, did he? He rolled his shoulders. The warm, alcoholic looseness had begun to leach from him, and with it the unconcern for how his words might land.

Still Loki sat, silent, as if the question he wanted would fall from Thor’s mouth if only he waited long enough.

“But I don’t suppose any of it matters,” Thor said. The potion was not quite gone from his veins, or so he’d tell himself later. It was the potion that made him reckless, striking blindly and hoping for a hit. “Do you even know the answers yourself?”

Loki licked his lips. He held Thor’s gaze, and held it, and finally he looked away. Quietly, “No.”

More gently, Thor said, “Perhaps you should have taken the potion after all. You could have found out.”

“I doubt that is within a mere potion’s power.”

Still he did not look at Thor, and the potion must truly be nearly gone, because Thor could find no words to break the silence. Finally he gave into his impulses: he crossed the room, pulled Loki to his feet, and drew him into a hug.

“Is this really necessary?” Loki asked against Thor’s shoulder.

Tomorrow Loki might betray them all, though Thor felt it increasingly unlikely, whatever Banner and the Valkyrie said. Or perhaps he would simply slip away for a while, as he had when they were children and the company of Thor and his friends became oppressive. But for now he was here, and that was far more than Thor had once had the heart to hope for. “Yes,” Thor said, very firmly.

“Naturally,” Loki said, but he stayed exactly where he was.

[end]


End file.
